[2] William Acton (1906–45). Painter and younger brother of Harold Acton.
23 September 2006
Edensor
Darling Paddy,
Harvest Festival here. Alan [Shimwell] has made some little wire baskets lined with hay filled with dark brown eggs, wonderful.
Stella came. We had to be together in a photo for Vogue’s 90th birthday come Christmas. So one Mario Testino, [1] famous photographer, came in a helicopter with a crew of makeup, hairdresser, ‘fashion editor’ etc from London.
I’ve got a really beautiful dress, grand evening, given me by Oscar de la Renta, so that was my kit. They bound Stella’s legs, up to where they join her body, in tartan. A Union Jack flag hung from her waist & her top was what my father would have called meaningless.
Hair skewbald/piebald, all colours & stuck up in bits. THEN they produced ‘shoes’ with 6 inch heels. More stilts – she could hardly put one foot in front of the other, wobbling & toppling, and being 6′-tall she turned into 6′6˝.
We looked just like that Grandville drawing of a giraffe dancing with a little monkey. I was the monkey.
Fashion is as queer as folks. So that was the excitement, now down to earth with the Harvest Festival.
Much love
Debo
[1] Mario Testino (1954–). The Peruvian photographer took some of the first fashion shots of DD’s supermodel granddaughter, Stella Tennant, who married his assistant, David Lasnet, in 1999.
10 October 2006
Mani
Darling Debo,
Is there a copy of Kim, by Rudyard Kipling, anywhere about – viz. the library over at Dingley Dell? I expect it’s not quite old or important enough, but if there IS, and a copy illustrated by his father ( John Lockwood Kipling) could you possibly get your new librarian to get a certain picture in it called The Russeldar, [1] or something similar, Hindustani for a retired cavalry soldier, I think, to take a photograph of it, and send it to me, & note the number of the page it is opposite, on the back?
This is very complicated. To bore you further, I was going through old papers yesterday, and came on a colour photograph of a pretty skewbald cat of Joan’s, fast asleep with its head on an open copy of Kim, exactly on this page, with the Russeldar plain as a pikestaff and Joan’s specs across it too; all this is on a square of sofa, with lovely details of pattern and colour, the cat flat out. It’s marvellously composed, an ideal vision of an afternoon nap, with the heroine of the scene, viz. Joan, momentarily off stage. I want to get the text opposite the pussycat correct and turn the picture into hundreds of P.C.s, which I will use for the rest of my life. I can get the cards made in Athens or Rome. It will be entitled ‘Egyptian P.T.’, which was the soldiers’ name for forty winks after lunch, when serving east of Suez. It would be wonderful if you could help with the context – nothing more, and many many thanks in advance if it can be done. The illustration’s modelled in relief clay – about 1900, perhaps a bit earlier, by Mr J L K, then photographed.
I’m going to Athens tomorrow for four days, for the memorial service of a chap called David Sutherland, who was one of the great stars of the SBS – Special Boat Service – like Geo Jellicoe, and David Stirling (with SAS), and the Embassy are most kindly sending a car and putting me up, and I’m looking forward to the outing. I wish it were only 20 minutes’ drive here from the Rectory, instead of three days. Hamish Robinson was staying here when I came, but has had to return. I’ve just been talking to Rita, who looks after everything, asking her to send me some Marmite and forgotten clothes. She’s the champion of Dumbleton skittles team, and has been covering herself and her side with glory. She’s an angel and Jeff our gardener is tip-top, so we’re in luck.
The olive harvest has begun. Ladders are propped among the branches of each tree and olives come pattering down on to coloured rugs and tarpaulin, with lots of children and dogs skipping about, and pillars of pale blue smoke from the sawn-off branches floating up into the autumn sky.
Tons of love,
Paddy
[1] ‘The Ressalder’, a native cavalry captain in the Anglo-Indian army.
[May 2007]
Edensor
Darling Paddy
Nature notes. A daft mallard made her nest in a patch of irises in this garden. I wondered how on earth she would get to the river when the eggs hatched. I thought of penning her in with food and drink so I could catch the lot and take them in the car . . . (but didn’t). Yesterday there she was on the lawn with 11 ducklings. Please picture the hazards ahead – the huge & deep ha-ha into the park, a hundred yards or more to the main road, the traffic rushing, then more hundreds of yards to the river. Crows, jackdaws, hawks and now ravens all spotting them on the open ground.
As though ordered or instructed from on high, the duck jumped down into the weedy ha-ha & all 11 jumped with her, climbed up the bank & set off for the road. My excellent neighbour Bridget [1] followed them & ran past to get to the road before they did, succeeded & stood there with her hand up stopping the traffic till all reached the other side. They hurried on such a long trek to the water, straight as 12 dies.
I know it happens every year, but do admit the power of instinct. How did she know the way? So extraordinary.
Much love
Debo
[1] Bridget Flemming (1945–). Photographer born on the Chatsworth estate; semi-detached neighbour, with her husband, Andrew, of DD in Edensor.
When this volume went to press, the two correspondents, aged eighty-eight and ninety-three, were still keeping up a lively exchange of letters.
Index
The links below refer to the page references of the printed edition of this book. While the numbers do not correspond to the page numbers or locations on an electronic reading device, they are retained as they can convey useful information regarding the position and amount of space devoted to an indexed entry. Because the size of a page varies in reflowable documents such as this e-book, it may be necessary to scroll down to find the referenced entry after following a link.
Abdy, Jane, Lady (née Noble), 198 & n2
Abdy, Sir Robert, 199n2
Achillopoulos, Costa, 18n2
Acton, Sir Harold, 3n2, 142–3 & n1, 346n1, 347
Acton, William, 367 & n2
Adeane, Edward, 356 & n4
Agrapha range (mountains), 134 & n Agricultural Notebook, The, 247n1, 248
Airlie, David Ogilvy, 8th Earl of, 340 & n1
Alevizakis, George, 210n3
Alevizakis, Father John, 209 & n3
Alexandra, Princess, 213
Alington, Feodorovna, Lady (née Yorke), 319n4, 320
Alington, Napier Sturt, 3rd Baron, 319–20 & n4, 321n5
Almásy, Ilona, 201
Almásy, Janos von, 237n8
Alport, Cuthbert, Baron, 73n5
Alport, Rachel (née Bingham), 71 & n5
Alsop, Susan Mary, 88n2
Amery, John, 146 & n4
Amory, Mark: PLF describes, 7n4; edits Ann Fleming letters, 23n5, 203 & n1, 232; edits Evelyn Waugh’s letters, 144n3, 173 & n3; DD’s friendship with, 196; PLF declines to review book for, 252
Annesley, Richard Grove, 70n2
Anson, Lady Clodagh, 228 & n1, 229
Antibes, 292
Antrim, Randal McDonnell, 8th Earl of (‘Ran’): at Lismore, 9 & n4; DD meets at Lady Bridget Parsons’, 15; in Paros, 46; shooting, 50; conducts National Trust cruise round Ireland, 111; and National Trust gardens, 199
Apesteguía, Jaime Parladé, Marques de, 91n1, 144, 253, 293, 353
Apesteguía, Janetta, Marquesa de see Woolley, Janetta Armitage, Sir Arthur, 214
Ashton, Sir Frederick, 197 & n2
Asquith, Herbert Henry, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, 8n5
Asquith, Raymond, 218n1
Astaire, Adele see Cavendish, Lady Charles Astaire, Fred, 5 & n1
Astor, Michael and Pandora, 95n1
Athens, 76, 109, 175
Aus
tin, Texas: Harry Ransom Center, 178 & n3
Austria, 117
Avéroff, Evangelos, 81–2 & n1, 133, 192
Avéroff, Tatiana, 134
Baker, Richard, 204
Bannister, Sir Roger, 176 & n2
Bath, Alexander Thynne, 7th Marquess of, 301 & n1
Bath, Henry Thynne, 6th Marquess of, 3n, 12, 59 & n1, 276 & n2, 290–1, 307
Bath, Virginia, Marchioness of (née Parsons; then Tennant), 59 & n1
Batsford Park, Gloucestershire, 211 & n2
Beaton, Sir Cecil, 38 & n1, 53, 68, 119
Beaufort, Caroline, Duchess of (née Thynne), 216n4, 301
Beaufort, David Somerset, 11th Duke of, 216 & n4
Beaufort, Henry Somerset, 10th Duke of (‘Master’), 73n3, 217 & n6
Beaverbrook, William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron, 85 & n2
Beckett, Sir Martyn, 50 & n3, 153 & n8, 155–6
Beckett, Priscilla, Lady (née Brett), 51n3
Beddoes, Very Rev. Ron, Provost of Derby Cathedral, 299 & n1
Beddoes, Thomas Lovell, 299
Bedford, John Robert Russell, 13th Duke of: How to Run a Stately Home, 228
Beevor, Antony, 237n11, 360; Crete: The Battle and the Resistance, 264 & n1
Beit, Sir Alfred, 119 & n2
Beit, Clementine, Lady (née Mitford), 119 & n2
Bell, Angelica (later Garnett), 190n1
Bell, Vanessa, 190n1 Belstone Fox, The (film), 218n6
Benaki Museum, 308 & n1
Bence Jones, Mark: Palaces of the Raj, 149 & n3
Berlin, Sir Isaiah, 284n7
Berners, Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron, 232n2
Betjeman, Sir John, 11n3, 154n5, 300 & n3, 310, 321, 366; ‘Dumbleton Hall’ (poem), 31n1
Betjeman, Penelope, Lady (née Chetwode), 150 & n5
Biddesden Manor, Wiltshire, 205n1, 210
Bigham, Joanna (née Murray; later Viscountess Mersey), 158
Bignor Park, Sussex, 206, 266
Birgi, Nuri, 220
Birkenhead, Frederick Winston Furneaux Smith, 2nd Earl of, 85 & n2
Birkhall (house), Aberdeenshire, 348
Blair, Cherie (née Booth), 332
Blair, Tony, 328 & n1, 332, 356
Blake, William, 317
Blakiston, Georgiana: edits Conrad Russell letters, 247n1
Bligh, Sir Timothy, 98 & n4
Blunt, Anthony, 184 & n4
Bock, Field Marshal Fedor von, 215 & n3
Bogarde, Sir Dirk, xv, 19–20 & n2, 290, 301
Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire, 49–50, 109, 210, 218, 277, 343
Bonjour Tristesse (film), 37n1
Bonnet, M. & Mme (née Dubonnet), 69
Bordeaux, 86
Borghese, Princess Pauline: portrait bust at Chatsworth, 363 & n4
Boumaza, Miranda (née Rothschild), 110 & n2
Bowles, Thomas Gibson (DD’s grandfather), 348 & n2, 355
Bowood, Wiltshire, 355
Bowra, Sir Maurice, 46 & n1, 110, 144, 284n7, 320, 365–6; New Bats in Old Belfries (ed. Henry Hardy and Jennifer Holmes), 367n2
Bragg, Melvyn, Baron, 254 & n1
Brahms, Caryl and Ned Sherrin: The Mitford Girls (musical), 189 & n3, 192, 194, 196
Brains Trust, The (radio programme), 48 & n8
Branch, Guy Rawstron, 253n1, 283 & n7
Branch, Lady Prudence (née Pelham), 284n7
Branscombe, Devon, 104
Brenan, Gamel, 122n3
Brenan, Gerald, 121 & n3
British Union of Fascists, 13n2
Brittany, 86, 88
Brock, Michael and Eleanor (eds): H. H. Asquith: Letters to Venetia Stanley, 8n5
Broughshane, Kensington Davison, 3rd Baron, 277 & n1
Brown, Lancelot (‘Capability’), 210
Brown, Tina, 292n1
Bruern Abbey, Oxfordshire, 94 & n1
Bucharest, 199, 201
Buchwald, Art: ‘Six-Minute Louvre’, 147 & n1
Buck, Edward John: Simla Past and Present, 154n7
Buckingham Palace: DD attends party, 197
Buckland, Marion, 250 & n1
Budapest, 199, 201, 233
Burlington, Laura, Countess of (née Roundell), 260n4
Burlington, William Cavendish, Earl of (DD’s grandson), 259 & n4, 262n1
Burn, Barbara, 274 & n2
Burn, Mary (née Booker), 306 & n3
Burn, Michael, 306 & n3
Burrows, Tim, 213
Buxton, Derbyshire, 197n4
Byng, Douglas, 320 & n3
Byron, George Gordon, 6th Baron, 128, 278, 320, 326
Byron, Robert, 358 & n4; The Road to Oxiana, 359n5, 367
Caccia, Harold, Baron, 78 & n1
Calvert, Phyllis, 155 & n3
Cameroon, 42–3, 45
Campbell, Mary see Dunn, Mary, Lady Campbell, Robin, 23n7
Campbell, Thomas, 363n4
Canova, Antonio, 363n4
Cantacuzène, Elena (later Donici; ‘Pomme’), 199 & n2, 201
Cantacuzène, Princess Marie-Blanche (‘Balasha’): PLF’s correpondence with, xi; PLF attempts to evacuate from Romania, 82 & n3; home in Moldavia, 202; sings Provençal carols, 253n1; and Idina Sackville, 282–3
Cap Ferrat, France, 20
Capote, Truman, 47 & n4, 53
Carr, Sir Raymond (‘Professor Brainstorm’), 195 & n2
Carrington, Dora, 75n6, 121 & n3, 205, 207 & n2, 297; Letters and Extracts from her Diaries (ed. David Garnett), 205n1, 320 & n5
Carritt, Dr Christian, 313 & n1, 336, 340, 342–3
Carritt, David, 111 & n1
Cavendish, Lady Celina (DD’s granddaughter), 259 & n3
Cavendish, Lord Charles, 6n1
Cavendish, Lady Charles (Adele Astaire), xx, 6n1
Cavendish, Lady Elizabeth (DD’s sister-in-law; ‘Deacon’), 9 & n3, 245, 312, 321
Cavendish, Lady Emma see Tennant, Lady Emma
Cavendish, Henry, 173
Cavendish, Lady Jasmine (DD’s granddaughter), 259 & n3
Cavendish, Lady Sophia see Topley, Lady Sophia
Cecil family, 80n3
Cecil, Lord David, 307 & n2
Chagford, Devon, 23, 26, 28, 90, 303, 305
Chantilly, France, 6, 15n5, 34, 38, 41, 362
Charles, Prince of Wales: wedding, 198n1; supports Norfolk Churches Trust, 264n3; visits Chatsworth, 279, 284; invites DD and PLF to Sandringham, 283–4; keeps rare breed poultry, 286; DD visits France with, 289; and Morton’s book on Diana, 290–1; at Queen Mother’s funeral, 332 & n2; DD stays with at Birkhall, 348; attends DD’s reading at carol service, 355; marriage to Camilla Parker Bowles, 356 & n6
Charteris, Laura (later Duchess of Marlborough), 195 & n1
Chatsworth House, Derbyshire: DD and Andrew occupy and revive, x, xix–xxi, 57, 62; Old Master drawings exhibited at National Gallery in Washington, 94n3; mock book-titles, 100–3, 256; staff, 103–4; drawings listed for insurance, 111; gift shop, 158 & n1; treasures exhibited in Fort Worth, 185n4; as charitable trust, 188; Capability Brown landscapes, 210; Raymond Asquith denigrates, 219n1; PLF spends Christmases at, 222n2, 326, 334; PLF visits, 231, 244, 331, 339; wallpaper blocks, 261; farm shop (Pilsley), 281 & n9; Frink horse sculpture at, 287; television programmes on, 288, 318 & n1; Lascelles describes, 291; branch of farm shop opened in London, 318 & n1; archives, 322; pop concerts, 344–5
Chatsworth House Trust, 287
Chatwin, Bruce, 227 & n1, 229–30, 309; On the Black Hill, 230n1
Chauvel, Jean, 284n3
Cheshire, David, 254 & n1
Cheshire, Leonard, Baron, 212 & n4
Chester Row, London, 29, 31, 94, 108
Chesterfield Street, London, 3 & n5, 77, 100
Cholmondeley, Lady Aline, 212 & n7
Cholmondeley, David Rocksavage, 7th Marquess of, 213 & n8
Cholmondeley, Lavinia, Marchioness of (née Leslie), 212 & n6
Cholmondeley, Sybil, Marchioness of (née Sassoon), 110 & n1, 197, 205, 211–13, 239, 244, 259, 310
n1
Churchill, Clementine, Lady: paternity, 346 & n3
Churchill, Randolph, 120 & n6
Cicogna, Countess Anna-Maria, 57n1
Clark, Alan, 313 & n2
Cliff Cottage, Dinas, Pembrokeshire, 83
Cobb, Carolyn Postlethwaite, 305 ‘Coccinelle’ see Dufresnoy, Jacqueline-Charlotte Codrington, Admiral Sir Edward, 112, 326
Cole, Nat King, 79
Coleman, Henry, 263 & n1, 356
Coleman, Joan, 356
Coleridge, Gill, 291 & n2
Cole’s of Mortimer Street, 261
Colonna, Prince Marcantonio, 321n4
Conner, Angela, 284 & n1
Connolly, Cyril, 39 & n1, 143, 282, 283n2, 342
Cooleville House, Co. Tipperary, 59n2
Cooper, Alfred Duff (later 1st Viscount Norwich): in France, 7n3, 15n5; marriage, 15n5; wears medals at party, 307; Diary (ed. John Julius Norwich), 361
Cooper, Artemis (later Beevor), 235 & n11, 264, 330, 360; (ed.) Words of Mercury, xiiin, 329 & n3
Cooper, Lady Diana (née Manners): PLF’s correspondence with, xi; death, xii; PLF visits in France, 7n3, 14 & n5; DD sees at ball, 18; and Somerset Maugham, 22; at Gielgud’s Shakespeare reading in Paris, 37; dinner with Ann Fleming, 48; on cruise to Greece and Black Sea, 53; in Greece, 68, 116; attends Nancy Mitford’s launch party, 72; portrayed in Don’t Tell Alfred, 88n2; faints at cinema, 108; at cinema with PLF, 118; and PLF’s visit to England, 216; longevity, 239; in Conrad Russell letters, 247; visits Iris Tree in hospital, 265; on Russian cruise with Rose Macaulay, 304; PLF’s fondness for, 361–2
Corfu, 144, 192
Cornwall, Camilla, Duchess of (earlier Parker Bowles), 357n6
Courances chateau, 289 & n1
Coward, Sir Noël, 189
Cranbrook, Caroline, Countess of (née Jarvis), 333 & n1
Craxton, John, 11n9, 257 & n1